Tag: Arizona
Joe Arpaio Appreciation Station
HidingFromGoro.
Posted to Legal on Sat May 31, 2008 at 07:47:26 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.
If you're lucky enough not to live in AZ like I do, you might not know about Joe Arpaio. He's the Maricopa County Sheriff who signed a promise to serve only one term when he was elected in 1992. He's still the Sheriff. When it comes to drug warriors, this guy doesn't mess around. He's got a self-propelled howitzer with "Sheriff Arpaio's War on Drugs" painted on it, with some tasteful lightning bolts added for effect. He'll kill your dog and burn your house down if you get in his way (while simultaneously crushing your neighbor's car with an armored personnel carrier). He's got that tent jail in the desert, where you have to wear old-timey striped uniforms with pink underwear, eat substandard food, and work on chain gangs but at least he provides rebar for you (pdf) to make it easier for to beat other inmates to half to death. If you don't want to read the pdf, the gist of it he got fined over $600,000 because the rebar had been used as weapons before, and he still chose not to secure them from the inmates. The judge said "...among other things, the Sheriff and his deputies had actual knowledge that prisoners used rebar tent stakes and tent poles as weapons and did nothing to prevent it." Furthermore, "the Sheriff admitted knowing about, and in fact intentionally designing, some conditions at Tent City that created a substantial risk of inmate violence."
(7 comments, 1046 words in story) Full Story
Welcome To Arizona. Prepare To Be Stopped & Searched If You're Not White.
MayorBob.
Posted to Politics on Wed Apr 23, 2008 at 07:49:04 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.
Racial profiling is a nasty business. It means that if you are black or brown, you are more likely to be stopped, questioned and searched by the police. It means your civil liberties are less by virtue of your skin color. When the profiling becomes blatant and offensive enough, it's time to go to court, as happened with Arizona back in 2001. Rather than drag out things, the state Department of Public Safety (DPS) reached a settlement (pdf doc) in 2006 with plaintiffs, agreeing to end racial profiling. They also agreed to collect data on racial and ethnic breakdowns of traffic stops and arrests. Two years after swearing to play nice and not profile, DPS faces renewed charges of racial profiling -- charges backed up by the data collected by their officers.
(68 comments, 625 words in story) Full Story
Stop Your Seditious Teachings.
MayorBob.
Posted to Legal on Sat Apr 19, 2008 at 06:10:40 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.
It sounds like something out of the McCarthy-era Red-hunting days of the 1950s. But, it is really the 21st century and this time the target isn't communism. This time the target is anything that detracts in any way from the notion of the US as a melting pot. If bill working its way through the legislature now gets passed into law, public education in Arizona would be radically changed. The public schools would be barred from teaching the history of any ethnic or racial minority group. Any "organization ... based in whole or in part on race-based criteria" would not be allowed to operate on any of the public colleges or universities in the state. As a matter of fact, anything "considered counter to democracy or Western civilization" would be outlawed in Arizona public schools.
(76 comments, 432 words in story) Full Story
